Local reaction to Puerto Rico's statehood vote mixed

LORAIN -- The residents of Puerto Rico have voted in support of becoming a state but local opinions on the issue are varied.

More than 12,000 people, or 20 percent of the total population, in Lorain are of Puerto Rican descent.

On election day in Puerto Rico, citizens were given two questions -- one asking if they were happy with their current status as a commonwealth of the United States and another which gave them three alternate options -- independence, statehood and sovereign free association.

The majority were in favor of statehood for the first time since the people of Puerto Rico received U.S. citizenship in 1917.

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Most local Puerto Ricans are either for statehood or for staying a commonwealth, with a very small minority supporting independence, according to Victor Leandry, executive director of El Centro in Lorain.

"I think you will find a split community here like in Puerto Rico," he said.

According to the Associated Press, 900,000 Puerto Rican voters or 54 percent said they were not happy with the current status. In the follow-up question, nearly 800,000 or 61 percent chose statehood as their preferred option, 437,000 picked sovereign free association and 72,560 selected independence. Roughly 500,000 people left the question blank. The question has been brought up three times in the past and had no clear majority.

Those who were born locally seem to be more opposed to statehood than those born on the island.

"They have identified with it, with their culture and their parents," Leandry said of those born locally. "There is a fear of what will happen with their culture. They don't want to lose their identity as being from Puerto Rico."

Leandry said he is personally for statehood for Puerto Rico, he came to the mainland states in the late 1980s because he wanted to improve his life.

"I know I love my island, it is a beautiful, beautiful island, but there are things here in the states that I appreciate more," he said.

Residents of Puerto Rico have little representation in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections, said Tomas Cabassa, a former teacher born in Puerto Rico and now residing in Lorain County.

"The commonwealth has always won," he said. "It is the first time voters have indicated their interest is not to continue being a territory and to be come a state."

According to the Pew Research Center, more people of Puerto Rican origin live in the United States than on the island. The island has an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent, Cabassa said.

"If Puerto Rico were to become a state, it would be the poorest of all of the states," he said.

Though the majority chose statehood, voters removed pro-statehood Gov. Luis Fortuno and elected Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who is for staying a territory, Cabassa said.

Many of Lorain's residents are not even aware of the vote, Cabassa said.

"Many people here are not really that interested, especially the younger generations," Cabassa said of the vote in favor of statehood. Some believe that keeping the status quo is the best of the two options, giving the island some autonomy while sacrificing some benefits, he said.

Puerto Ricans in Lorain are not likely to be for independence as many have family still on the island and that decision could make travel between the two locations more complicated. Citizens move freely between the states and the island now, Cabassa said.

"As soon as we move from Puerto Rico to here, we have all of the benefits," he said. "If it became an independent country, that would close some doors."

Rey Carrion, acting director of community development for the city of Lorain, was born in Puerto Rico and came to the United States at age 13. Carrion said he always has been a proponent of statehood.

It would be an opportunity to join a great nation while improving the lives of those on the island, Carrion said.

His father was an economic development director for Puerto Rico and he traveled to the United States to recruit manufacturers to set up shop on the island. With the economic conditions of the last decade, Puerto Ricans may be looking for change, Carrion said.

"I believe that it's important for an island, for that small island, to be part of the mainstream here," Carrion said.

Ohio State Representative Dan Ramos, the only Puerto Rican in state government, said he plans to speak for his constituency and share the opinion for statehood with the U.S. Congress.

He said he has relatives from the island who have fought and died in the U.S. military but who have never had the right to vote for a president.

"If the citizens of the island want to join the United States as a full state and want to have the right to vote that we all hold so dear, I think Congress should act on that," he said. "If the people want statehood, I think we should respect that, with both the privileges and the responsibilities that brings."

Ramos said he thinks the island has a decent chance of becoming a state if that is the will of the people.

The Associated Press stated that Garcia, the recently elected governor, plans to have a constitutional assembly in 2014 to address the island's status and to raise another referendum with the support of Congress.

"I genuinely hope that Congress will listen to the will of the Puerto Rican people and to the citizens of that island," he said.